Bowker® BookWire App Allows On-the-Go Access to Book Data

ProQuest affiliate Bowker, ProQuest e-book business ebrary and Choice, a publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), are uniting to improve the accessibility and utility of Resources for College Libraries(RCL), the popular collection development tool for academic libraries. Choice and Bowker, whose unique partnership created RCL, have launched a variety of enhancements including a mobile application for the web-based resource, which is used by academic libraries to identify core titles for scores of academic subject areas.Additionally, more than 13,000 RCL titles will now be available on the ebrary platform.

“The combination of Choice’s content and Bowker’s technological expertise have made RCL an essential and easy-to-use tool for academic collection development,” said Kevin Sayar, Senior Vice-President and General Manager, ProQuest Workflow Solutions. “Via the ebrary platform, we’re enabling RCL to directly enhance the research environment by streamlining access to essential titles.”

Originally launched in 2006, RCL is a suite of works based on the American Library Association’s classic reference work, Books for College Libraries (BCL). As ebrary collections, universities, colleges, and other institutions can provide their users with anytime, anywhere access to RCL’s essential titles. RCL titles can be browsed by its broad range of subjects- traditional liberal arts and sciences curriculum, business, computer science, education, engineering and health sciences – or by publisher. The titles are supported with ebrary’s popular features, such as free mobile apps for the iPad®, iPhone®, iPod touch® and Android’, along with InfoTools’, granular usage statistics, and sophisticated searching and navigation. Through ebrary, RCL titles will also be surfaced through the ProQuest® platform and the Summon® service, significantly enhancing its discovery. RCL titles can be purchased as a perpetual archive and enabled for patron-driven acquisition.